The online platform X has provoked major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
